I did some of the above fixes and they helped --X doesn't crash-- but nothing OpenGL works. I ran a screensaver from the command-line and I got this message:

Error: Could not open /dev/nvidiactl because the permissions
are too restrictive. Please see the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
section of /usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/README for steps
to correct.
Segmentation Fault

I read through the README and it describes this message and how to fix it which is:

It is likely that a security module for the PAM system may be
changing the permissions on the NVIDIA device files. In most cases
this security system works, but it can get confused. To correct this
problem it is recommended that you disable this security feature.
Different Linux distributions have different files to control this;
please consult with your distributor for the correct method of
disabling this security feature. As an example, if your system has
the file
/etc/security/console.perms
then you should edit the file and remove the line that starts with
"<dri>" (we have also received reports that additional references to
<dri> in console.perms must be removed, but this has not been verified
by NVIDIA). <<<< I had to remove one other <dri> line. root was the only user I could log in with. my username just flashed a quick CRITICAL message. commenting out the line fixed this problem<<<<

If instead your system has the file
/etc/logindevperms
then you should edit the file and remove the line that lists
/dev/nvidiactl. The above steps will prevent the PAM security system
from modifying the permissions on the NVIDIA device files. Next,
you will need to reset the permissions on the device files back
to their original permissions and owner. You can do that with the
following commands:
chmod 0666 /dev/nvidia* chown root /dev/nvidia*

Now I did the chmod and chown and OpenGL works fine after that but after a reboot I just get the error message again. I'll run

chmod 0666 /dev/nvidia* chown root /dev/nvidia*

again and everything works but if I reboot......I think you get the picture.